Lowe’s five-hit night too much for Tribe to handle
By: Sean Fitzgerald
A nearly unrecognizable Texas Rangers squad came to Cleveland for the first time in two years to play the Indians on a warm Tuesday night for the 11,369 fans attending.
Nathaniel Lowe balled out for the Rangers with five hits and helped power Texas to a 7-3 win and snapping Cleveland’s three-game winning streak in the process.
Eli Morgan got jumped early, with Nathaniel Lowe blasting a 1-2 pitch to right center for three runs.
Taylor Hearn came out throwing heat for the Rangers, the only damage a lone walk to Jose Ramirez.
Morgan’s second inning saw two more batters reach base on hits. Fortunately for Cleveland, Morgan struck out All-Star Adolis Garcia with 39 pitches thrown.
Daniel Johnson cranked his fourth home run of the season during the home half of the fourth, putting the Tribe into the score column. It was Johnson’s first career homer off a left-handed pitcher.
With Lowe’s third hit of the night, DeMarlo Hale took the ball from Morgan and sent him to the showers. The right-hander finished with a line of 4 ⅓ innings pitched with four earned runs on eight hits. Morgan wracked up four strikeouts to two walks, firing off 51 of 76 pitches for strikes.
Countering the run Texas scored in the top of the fifth, Yu Chang socked a fastball 402 feet to cut the Rangers’ lead in half
The relatively unknown Hearn pitched one of his better starts in his young career before walking Amed Rosario and Ramirez working a long at-bat into a base hit, lasting five innings with five hits and three runs. Hearn walked two batters but sent six down on strikes, putting 60 of his 88 tosses into the strike zone.
With reliever Demarcus Evans in the game, Franmil Reyes added an RBI on a sac-fly to score Rosario from third.
With the bottom-third of the Indians’ order due up in the seventh, Johnson and Chang both reached base with Ernie Clement popped a bunt in the air that third baseman Andy Ibanez dove for and snagged for the first out and Myles Straw lined out to the pitcher, who doubled-up Chang to end the danger.
The dagger came in the ninth, with DJ Peters mashing two-out, full-count cutter off Bryan Shaw to the right field seats and sending fans to the exits.
The Indians have struggled all season when unable to hang four or more runs on the scoreboard, and tonight was no exception after a weekend of excellent pitching.
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A tie for No. 40
With his sixth inning bloop single, Jose Ramirez notched his 948th career hit in a Cleveland uniform. That hit tied him with former All-Star Grady Sizemore for 40th overall on the team’s all-time hit list.
Once he passes Sizemore for sole possession of 40th, next up on the list at No. 39 is George Stovall with 955 hits.
Rosario on a hitting binge
Amed Rosario has been arguably the best player in this winter’s blockbuster trade with the New York Mets. Now, he’s batting .289 on the year with a 10-game hit streak after a third inning two-out single.
Injury updates
A couple of bats will finally get back into game action tonight. Harold Ramirez and Bobby Bradley will suit up for the Lake County Captains to start their rehab assignments tonight.
Meanwhile, staff ace Shane Bieber tossed a bullpen session earlier today.
COVID watch
According to Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes, the Texas Rangers have placed five of their players on the COVID-19 injured list since Friday.
There weren’t any plans by Indians officials to postpone the series as of Tuesday.
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Sean Fitzgerald is a Kent State graduate and the press box correspondent for Mark One Sports and CLE TribeCast. Follow him on Twitter @fitzonsportsbsr.
